League of Legends Meets Westeros, HBO Partners with Riot Games for Game of Thrones Promotional Campaign

Game of Thrones and League of Legends? What’s not to like from that combination?

In a collaboration between League of Legends developer Riot Games and HBO, the entertainment channel has kicked off a cross-promotional campaign with the popular MOBA for the premiere of Game of Thrones, which is set to make the debut of its fourth season in April.

Collaborating for a three-week marketing campaign, Dustin Beck (VP of eSports and Merchandising, Riot Games) spoke with [a]listdaily on the promotions with HBO, which will incorporate various takeover ads and other logos/branding on the official website for the series, along with a possible mash-up trailer between the two franchises.

Beck mentioned:

“We got a cold call from HBO because they thought that there was going to be a great overlap between our players and their demographic of people that watch Game of Thrones and this was a good way to explore reaching that demographic through new media. We’ve done a lot of player surveys to see what our fans like and dislike and I think a lot of the discussion and strategies going forward that we have are going to cater to our fan base. We want to make sure that any activations that we do are super authentic to our fans and that we’re not working with brands that aren’t going to have any value to our players.”

Game of Thrones: Season 4 premieres on Sunday, April 6th, 2014 on HBO.

Ryan is the Features Editor at DualShockers, with over five years' experience in the world of video games culture and writing. He holds a BA in English & Cinema from Binghamton University, and lives in New York City.